The Russian, who works as vice-president with the Ligue 1 club, sounded surprised to see the young French forward leave for such a huge sum, which he confirmed could reach £57.6m due to ‘realistic’ add-ons in the deal.

Vasilyev compared the money United offered with the kind one would expect teams to pay for players like Luis Suarez and Neymar.

“It’s true that the price for Martial is £57.6m but take into account this sum includes bonuses which are very realistic,” he is quoted in The Sun.